Fighting the Invasive Stinkbug

Fighting the Invasive Stinkbug

Oct. 17, 2014 -
The brown marmorated stinkbug is an invasive species originally from
Asia. A threat to agriculture and a nuisance to homeowners, this pest
has devastated fruit and vegetable crops throughout the mid-Atlantic
United States. Researchers are teaming up with growers to study
the stinkbug's biology and behavior to find effective ways to control
its numbers.

TRACY LESKEY, RESEARCH ENTOMOLOGIST, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE:
Brown marmorated stink bug is not a native species. It’s native to Asia.

Some time in the mid-1990s it was accidentally introduced
into the United States. Here in the
Mid-Atlantic, we have seen some of the most significant problems from this
invasive species. And in 2010, which was
the biggest outbreak year that we’ve seen, we had growers that lost essentially
all of their stone fruit crops—these are things like peaches and nectarines
here in the Mid-Atlantic—and serious losses in the apple industry in this
region.

It’s continued to spread throughout the country. It’s now
been detected in 41 states.

This invasive is both an agricultural pest, but it is also
an incredible nuisance pest so homeowners in the fall have to deal with large
numbers coming into their homes, seeking an overwintering site—essentially a
place to hibernate until spring. You know, you go to brush your teeth in the
morning and there’s a stink bug sitting on your toothbrush. It’s not really [laughs] something that
people want to see. So, it’s been very
frustrating for homeowners as well to deal with these bugs in the numbers that
they can come in.

ROBERT BLACK, CO-OWNER, CATOCTIN MOUNTAIN ORCHARD:
Well, back in July of 2010 we were contacted by Dr. Tracey
Leskey of USDA. She said, “Is there any
chance we could come up and survey your orchard for stink bug?

You have to really be ready for them because with that
needle mouth part that just pierces through the skin, when you lose 90% of your
nectarines because of all the little pierce marks, sting marks or eating marks,
and then apples losing 50% of the crop, you won’t be in business long if you
let that happen all the time.

See our damage that we had in years past, I don’t want to
see that again on my farm.

TRACY LESKEY, RESEARCH ENTOMOLOGIST, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE:
One of the basic biological questions and behavioral
questions we had with this bug is their dispersal capacity, essentially how far
they can move. And so we know that that
they stink bugs are strong fliers but we didn’t know necessarily know how far
they could go. So with the flight-mill
system, which is basically like a treadmill for insects, we can tether them to
that system and then allow them to naturally move. And so they will make a rotation and that
calculates a certain distance on that flight path – that circular flight path.

If a bug if flying continuously for 24 hours, that
translates into 75 miles in a single day. The reason this is important is the
threat they pose to agriculture. How far
could they potentially move from to reach agricultural production.

[LESKEY ON TAPE] So, these have been going for a number of
hours. And this particular, it doesn’t
seem to have moved much.

[COLLEAGUE ON TAPE] No, no.
Even earlier this morning…

TRACY LESKEY, RESEARCH ENTOMOLOGIST, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
AGRICULTURE:
EthoVision is a tracking software. In that system we measured both adults and
nymphs in terms of their walking behavior.
We can also use it as a mechanism to understand how they respond when they
come in contact with different
stimuli. For example, we’ve put
repellant in that system and so we see the insects immediately being stimulated
and trying to essentially escape that arena when they are put on a
repellant. Or in some cases
insecticides.

Harmonic radar is a mobile tracking system where we
literally tag the insect with a small radar tag. It has copper wire
with a small diode. And then the radar system itself implements
the use of marine radar. And so we’ve
been able to use it with brown marmorated stink bugs to understand
retention
capacity and understand how particular host plants or particular stimuli
like
the pheromone—how attractive are they in terms of retaining them at a
particular location.

We know that insect development is linked to
temperature. They typically to a point
develop faster under warmer temperatures. So this year, this summer here in the
Mid-Atlantic it’s been cooler, it’s been wetter than in past seasons. And it’s probably slowed their activity so
we’ve had a smaller population this year than we’ve seen in hotter, drier
years.

The long term goal is to try to reduce populations across
the landscape. This is an insect that
has come in, it disrupted the system and it’s just caused so many
problems. And so for me, I want to solve
those problems. Anything we learn from
the agricultural standpoint is ultimately going to help the homeowner problem
as well. So I absolutely believe we can
solve this problem. It takes a team
effort and it takes a lot of work but we’ll get there because, um, I never want
to see what happened in 2010 again.

Fighting the Invasive Stinkbug

Oct. 17, 2014 -
The brown marmorated stinkbug is an invasive species originally from
Asia. A threat to agriculture and a nuisance to homeowners, this pest
has devastated fruit and vegetable crops throughout the mid-Atlantic
United States. Researchers are teaming up with growers to study
the stinkbug's biology and behavior to find effective ways to control
its numbers.